Urgent help re renting student flat

lrlrip

My DD19 is in her first year at Uni. and is currently staying in halls. Most of the halls are only for first years so herself and her three flat mates decided to look for a flat for September. On Monday they arranged to go and visit two flats and three yesterday. The first two were a no go but they fell in love with a three storey townhouse yesterday. They were told by the agent that showed them round that she had just shown another party round before them and this party wanted the house but as they had arranged for the viewing first they had first refusal. My DD does believe that there was another party round before then as I had thought perhaps this was a ploy to get them to sign up immediately.

The girls said they would all phone their parent's and get back to them within the hour which they did. I had warned my DD well about asking questions etc. They went in with a list of question (none of them have obviously done this before so we thought up all we could for them to ask) They were told they need a non-refundable deposit of 100 pounds each yesterday which they all paid and that they were also required to pay a 75 pound arrangement fee within 7 days. They had also to pay 1540.00 one week before getting the keys in August. They were to get an email today giving them all the details. When the email came today it also said they were due 1100 on top of the 75 each. DD phoned the Management Company and they said that they were due 1100 one months rent plus 75 pounds each within 7 days. DD said that when the woman filled in the form she said you have paid 400 deposit, 75 pounds each within 7 days and ignore the one months rent on the form as you will be paying one and half's months rent before moving in. Beside the 1100 on the form is a printed asterisk which say "read details on the back of the form" but there is no details on the back of the form. DD has unfortunately signed the form as the lead tenant.

After phoning the other girls they have all agreed 100% that they were told they did not have to pay the 1100 pounds next week.

DD has just phoned the company and the person on the phone (who DD is sure is the person who filled in the forms with them although she did not say she was) has said the manager will phone back when she gets into the office (I am not too sure about that).


The girls are now reluctant to proceed with this Company.

Would this be normal practice to pay nearly 4000 pounds before moving into a property?

Where would they stand if : Anything happened to the company?
If the flat was in bad condition when they moved into it?


The girls went round nearly every solicitors/estate agents in the city centre and most of them suggested the Company they have gone with.

The funny thing is that when they got into the car yesterday after seeing the house they were approached by a man who asked then how much the company were asking for the rent of the flat, he said not to go with the company as they "treat you like animals and we will treat you like human beings"

Sorry for all the question but having never rented before we do not now all the ins and outs.

Jowo_2

Your post is too long - what's the monthly rent, the full sum of the deposit being asked for and the total admin fee for each tenant? What happened with the holding deposit - was this rolled into the main deposit once their tenancy application was accepted?

A a rule of thumb, it's fairly common for an agent to charge admin fees (anything up to a couple hundred pounds per tenant) and expect the tenants to pay in advance the first months rent and a deposit equivalent to between a month or 6 week's rent. It's also fairly common for tenants to be charged a holding deposit when the express an interest in proceeding with the tenancy.

Jowo_2

lrlrip wrote: »

Where would they stand if : Anything happened to the company?

Letting Agents (I assume this is the company you refer to) are mere intermediaries for the landlord - the agency is just representing him. The tenants have a direct legal relationship with the landlord.

Is the property in England/Wales?

adg1

Wow thats a long and hard to understand post! AS Jowo says, please provide a break down of the costs - from deposit to first month rent to admin fees to holding deposits to this £100 non refundable deposit they paid up and whether any counts towards the house damages deposit/1st months rent bill.

You need to get hold of the EAs original offer form and read the small print.

It is completely normal (here in the South) for the money to be paid up prior to the move date, and often on the same day you view the house (within 24 hours) as the lettings market here is hugely busy.

This money will be: 1st months rent installment, 6 week deposit and admin fees. This can (for a house the size they are looking at) easily run into £4-5000.

As far as I'm aware, according to trading standards, via an estate agent the property is only secure when:

1. both LL and T contracts are done
2. full deposit and month in advance is paid

It may be that the original person they met was ill informed and not sure how the company worked. Your DD needs to go to the agent with her group and speak to them. I'd totally recommend 0900 hours as theres a far greater chance of both the original person and the managers being in the office to overhear any conversations.

Go through what you have paid, take receipts, speak to the person they met originally and read thoroughly the offer form. Then you'll be able to find out where they stand properly and not be clutching at straws.

I'd no more trust the person they met outside than a shifty looking salesman in a shop called Dodgy Dan's Shifty Lookin' Cars. He sounds like another agent trying to get your daughter to look with him.

Fire_Fox

It seems best to deal with this in writing or at least e-mail rather than by telephone, to avoid any further misunderstandings.